Samara Public Non-profit Organization for Disabled People Parus Nadezhdy is looking for 1 volunteer from Germany! Project starts from 1 October 2016! We actually need ASAP applications!

Samara Public Non-profit Organization for Disabled People “Parus Nadezhdy” was established in 2003. It is affiliated to Samara Regional Public Organization of the All-Russian Society of the Disabled.

Parus Nadezhdy is one of the biggest NGOs in Samara fighting for the rights of disabled children. The specialists at this centre have many years of experience working with disabled children and organizing activities for them. This was one of the first centres to organise a support service for the disabled and their families.

Their mission is to provide integration of the disabled children of Samara region into society and to promote the ideas of independent life philosophy and social approach to disability.
Their main goals are:
– to protect rights and interests of disabled children;
– to provide disabled children with equal opportunities to participate in all spheres of social life;
– to integrate disabled people into society.

Their activities are focused on:
– providing the disabled children and their families with social and psychological support;
– organizing and conducting conferences, seminars and lectures on the problems of the disabled children;
– cooperating with other public organizations dealing with the similar problems;
– revealing children´s creative and intellectual abilities.

The receiver of the benefits here is the target group: the local youth.

Since February 2004 Parus nadezhdy has been cooperating with the centre of voluntary movement Lastochki//ICYE Russia, whose main task is the development of youth exchange programs and international voluntary movement.

This particular project gives EVS volunteers an opportunity to learn a lot about Russian culture, traditions, way of life and to share their own instead.
As they work with children they have a unique chance to experience the way the education system works in Russia. As well as this, by investigating new approaches to work with children without knowing the language perfectly and being the representative of another culture, the volunteers may discover some personal qualities that they have never known about themselves. Furthermore, they will learn about their home culture by comparing it with the Russian one.
Volunteers are always welcome to visit the local families in order to experience the local inner life that is never shown to foreigners.
Voluntary services provided by volunteers will contribute much to the creation of an atmosphere of love for children’s development.

Its activities are focused on: providing the disabled children and their families with social and psychological support; organizing and conducting conferences, seminars and lectures on the problems of the disabled children; cooperating with other public organizations dealing with the similar problems; revealing children´s creative and intellectual abilities.

The Organization invites individuals on a voluntary basis to work in collaboration to achieve the following objectives:

• Participation of an international volunteer in the activities of the Organisation will help to establish international contacts and to share knowledge about disability related issues in other countries.
• Services provided by an international volunteer to disabled people will contribute to their informal education and intercultural learning, to forming their moral values.
• The volunteer’s activity will be of great importance in assistance to the families that bring up disabled children.
• His/her involvement in the activities of the Organization will promote the idea of volunteerism in the social field among (young) people of Samara Region, which will hopefully result in drawing them to do voluntary work in the Organization.

Depending on volunteers’ will, skills and abilities sometimes work may include playing games, toy-making, reading, painting, music, modelling, theatre, etc. The last part gives a wide opportunity to show volunteers’ talents, creativity and communication skills in order to invent new games, workshops suitable for children and so on.

The disabled children do not have an opportunity to communicate with each other, attend the activities of the organization without the support of a volunteer from Parus Nadezhdy. Visiting these children, organizing their leisure time, involving them into the activities of the organization, giving them physical and moral support – these are the main tasks of a volunteer.

The objectives of the activities are to enable the EVS volunteer to:
– learn about life for disabled people in Russia, establish international contacts and share knowledge about disability related issues in other countries
– know other organisations in the region working with disabled children and what they do to fight for disabled people’s rights and promote an inclusive program, which is new to Russia
– obtain practical skills in the field of disabled children
– contribute to his informal education

EVS volunteers will participate in the general activities of Samara Public Organisation for Disabled People «Parus Nadezhdy»:
– Involvement in “support service for disabled children”: Communicating with the disabled children in the organization or at home, providing them with moral support and physical assistance, which may include painting, reading, drama, sports and other activities aimed at revealing their creative abilities (75%)
– Involvement in the preparation and organisation of regular events, run by the centre: seminars, training for parents, festivals for children, etc. (25%)
– Volunteers will be mainly visiting the children’s families and communicating with them. The volunteer’s activities will depend on the age of the children they visit:
– For those under 14 – playing games, handicrafts, outdoors games, etc.
– For those over 14 – computer games, language classes, etc.

The volunteer is not a professional worker. Volunteer will have increasing (shared) partial responsibilities while growing in the project but never will he have a final and sole responsibility. He will always work under supervision of someone from the centre. Besides that, the volunteer will have the opportunity to elaborate tasks and initiatives which are complementary to the tasks that have to be carried out in the local organization itself. Of course , in this case, almost all coworkers are volunteers but they are locals who make part of the project for a longer time and therefore have more responsibilities.

If you are interested in participating in this EVS please send your application to icye.russia@gmail.com.

Other details

The project will take place in the city of Samara. Here’s some information about it:
Samara is one of the largest Russian cities; its history is closely interwoven with the entire history of the Russian State.
Samara occupies the territory of 53’600 sq. km and lies 1’000 km to the south-east from Moscow. Population – 1’219’000 people.
Samara has a good geographical position and rich soil. That is why the region has a well-developed agriculture and food industry, meat and diary production in particular.

Samara has deep-routed cultural traditions. Its past and present preserve the names of famous writers, artists, musicians and actors.
Samara is a place of peaceful coexistence for different peoples and religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism + Catholic and Lutheran communities). There are different ethnic groups represented: Jewish, Armenian, Georgian, Chechnya, Chuvash, Mordva, German, Czech, Polish, and many other communities. Together they are creating a positive atmosphere for regional development, sharing their cultures and traditions and enriching the spirit of the city together with good economic trade partnership.

Samara is situated in a very picturesque location on the river Volga, near the Zhiguli mountains surrounded by boundless steppes, numerous lakes and fertile pastures. People are proud of the National Reserve situated on the opposite bank of the river Volga. In summer time people usually go trekking in the mountains, in winter they have a good opportunity to use the unique skiing facilities.
The Volga embankment is a good place to walk around, to bathe and just visit the numerous cafes.

Regarding the selection process:

The attention is mostly paid to the motivation of the volunteers. If motivation matches the project, the supervisors with the help of the Contact point organisation Lastochki make a selection. The hosting organisation and Lastochki together invite every candidate for Skype interview. The selection is done on agreement with the supervisors of the hosting organization.

Parus Nadezhdy wants volunteers in the first place to be motivated to get to know another way of life and to put themselves in a new social and cultural situation in order to try to understand other ways of living and other values.

Parus Nadezhdy is mainly interested to host people who are interested to work with the disabled people. The theme of the project is one of the most difficult and demanding. Work with people is not easy, especially if we talk about working with people with fewer opportunities and special needs. The volunteer should have at least some prior experience with disabled people. Even personal experience helps a lot. Very important is being positive and open-minded. The same time the volunteer should be ready to do a lot of routine and physically hard work. This requires a lot of patience and tolerance. Volunteer has to be motivated to participate in many different activities and willing to take a lot of initiatives himself. He has to be tolerant and enthusiastic. He has to be willing to work with youngsters and to create new activities basing on experience of inter-cultural education.

As Parus Nadezhdy is looking for someone motivated, enthusiastic and willing to work with disabled children, age and gender were secondary elements.